A systematic review of vaccine protection vs #Omicron (and #Delta) #Covid19 infections shows substantial waning after 87 days, reduced with a booster. Study is for design and timing of future vaccination programs.

Booster jabs distributed in England for a pre-Christmas vaccination push are to be thrown away because of a lack of demand a leaked NHS memo reveals. It is not known exactly how many vaccines will be discarded but it is likely to be “hundreds of thousands”.

The memo, sent from NHS England’s vaccination team to officials managing the 3,000 vaccination sites around the country, said some stocks would reach their expiry dates without being used. It urges them to try to use them up as soon as possible before they have to be thrown away.

Prof Martin Marshall, the chair of the Royal College of GPs, said: “Whilst everything will be done to keep vaccine wastage to a minimum, vaccines do have an expiry date, and if they are unused after this date or can no longer be stored in the correct conditions, they need to be destroyed.”

Dramatic drop in daily take up

Government figures on the booster rollout show that the number of people across the UK receiving their booster has fallen recently from 968,665 on 21 December to 111,849 on 13 January. It is now reported the average daily booster take up to be less than 100,000 and nearly 69% of all adults in the UK are estimated to have received either a booster or third dose of vaccine, meaning just under a third have yet to have the jab. Take-up remains lower among young adults, with just 44% of all 18 to 39-year-olds thought to have received a booster or third dose.

Effectiveness update

Meanwhile, a new report from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has provided updated figures on the effectiveness of booster jabs against Omicron. The report suggests the jabs may offer slightly better protection against severe outcomes than suggested by early data, revealing a third dose reduces the risk of hospitalisation by 92% two to four weeks later, although after 10 weeks or more the figure is lower at 83%.

“There is further data showing that effectiveness against symptomatic disease is significantly lower compared to the Delta variant, and wanes more quickly,” the report adds. While the level of protection against Omicron is about 65-75% two to four weeks after the jab, falling to about 40-50% protection from 10 or more weeks after the booster.

Conclusion

Jabs need to protect and continue to protect. Since the Covid-19 jabs protection decreases over time, it will make us even less protected. That’s not great when we live each day with a virus.

Not everyone can or will have 100% immunity to start with, particularly the people who fall into the category of being immunocompromised, anyone with a pre-existing condition, or those who are fighting cancer and who are currently having chemotherapy. Those people will be less protected.

The reality is as it stands, we will have to continue to be jabbed, because the efficacy and protection decreases over time... with each passing day, we are being more exposed to the virus again. Whilst people were initially happy to be double jabbed, they are less than happy to continue to be jabbed now, which is why there is a falling demand for the booster.

Moving forward, now precautionary measures have been scrapped by the UK Government on 19th Jan, it remains to be seen now how they will choose to handle the vaccine situation.

Source: https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk    https://www.theguardian.com